Last summer, her soccer ability carried Lara Batey to Brazil. Next summer, if all goes as planned, that same ability will take her to the 17^th Maccabiah in Israel for two weeks.

An 18-year old freshman on the University of Connecticut Women’s Soccer team, Batey has been invited to try out for the United States Maccabiah team. The tryouts will be held in Miami Lakes, FL, Jan. 7-9, 2005.

The Maccabiah, often called the "Jewish Olympics," takes place every fourth year, in the summer following the regular Olympic summer games. Jewish athletes from teenagers to 70 plus, representing countries from around the world, meet in Tel Aviv and compete in Ramat Gan Stadium.

"This is a great opportunity," Batey said. "It comes at a perfect time in my life. I’ve always wanted to go to Israel. My mother was born there and I have family and friends in Natanya."

Being contacted by Maccabiah USA/Sports for Israel came as a surprise to the University of Connecticut freshman. She doesn’t know how the organization learned of her or the fact that she is Jewish. Batey, she pointed out, isn’t exactly a Jewish name.

"I received a few E-mails from the organization, and they contacted my (UConn) coach, Len Tsantiris," she said. "He asked me if I was interested in doing it."

Just the fact that Batey is on Tsantiris’ UConn soccer team is a testament to her soccer ability. Tsantiris is just one of two NCAA college coaches to post 400-career victories, and the Huskies, a perennial Top 10 team, are just one of two universities to qualify for the NCAA National Tournament every year since its inception in 1982. The University of North Carolina is the other. And in that span, the blue and white have reached the championship game four times; 1984, 1990, 1997 and 2003.

Knowing Batey plays for UConn makes a good calling card as far as Maccabiah head coach Dave Rubenson is concerned. But it won’t be enough to win one of the 16-18 spots on the team. He is expecting 30-40 women to tryout.

"If she is playing on a regular basis it will impress me," Rubenson, the head women’s soccer coach at Texas Christian University, said. "More than anything else, though, I’ll be looking for good soccer players. People that have what it takes to represent the USA on the international level. They’ll have to be prepared to make the moves to be successful on the national level."

Rubenson is no novice when it comes to the Maccabiah. He captained the American men’s team in the 1977 games, and tried out for the US Olympic team in 1976 and 1980. Four years ago, he coached the United States Girl’s Junior Soccer team at the 2001 games.

Tom Cable, Batey’s coach at Joel Barlow High School in Redding, CT, is not surprised she received an invitation to try out.

"Besides graduating with a 4.3 grade-point average, Lara was a freshman starter for us and was our captain in her senior year. She is a solid player with all the skills and a great kid to work with. I believe she was instrumental in establishing our school as a legitimate team and led us to the state championship."

Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel sponsors United States participation in what it calls, "this athletic, cultural and educational extravaganza."

If Batey is successful and makes the American squad, she will become another in a long line of Maccabiah games alumni. The list includes swimmers Mark Spitz and Lenny Krayzelburg, gymnasts Mitch Gaylord and Kerri Strug, National Basketball Association stars Ernie Grunfeld, Dolph Schayes and Danny Schayes, golfer Bruce Fleisher, tennis pros Brad Gilbert and Dick Savitt, World Cup soccer star Jeff Agoos and Olympic triathlete Joanna Zeiger.

Anybody traveling to Israel needs to be concerned with safety. Even with increased safety measures, Maccabiah athletes will be confined to a special area known as the "Green Zone." However, even within the zone, Israel can be a dangerous place, and Batey said, the subject has come up with her parents and is sure to be discussed again.

"We’ve talked about safety; always taking the safest way to go; and where to go and not to go," she said. "I also have relatives there and expect them to guide me as well."

Batey also has a special safety card up her sleeve, wherever she is, on campus, around the United States, or in Israel. She is a first-degree black belt in the Tang-soo-do form of Taekwondo.

"That was my father’s idea," she said. "He’s been practicing karate for 33 years and is a fourth-degree black belt. There was no way he was letting his "little girl" go off to college without learning to defend herself.

"Hopefully, I won’t need to defend myself. If I make the team, I expect to have a great experience. I’ll see a different lifestyle and culture. It will give me a broader perspective about the world, while I have a good time and see some beautiful places."

Former New York Giant catcher Harry "The Horse" Danning (1911-2004) died, Nov. 29, 2004.

Danning, who was once referred to as "The Hebrew Schnozz" by a New York Times sportswriter, played for the Giants from 1933-42, including the 1933 World Series Championship team. He was also invited to four All-Star Games (1938-41) and played in the last two. A lifetime .285 hitter, he hit .300 or better four times.

Born in Los Angeles, CA, he spent the last 23 years of his life living with his daughter, Victoria Vollmer, in Union Township, IN.

Vollmer, a brother, Curtis Danning, a sister, Leah Serlin, and several grandchildren Danning.

Not many people get a two-month vacation every year, but minor-league baseball player Adam Greenberg does.

An outfielder in the Chicago Cubs organization, Greenberg started the season with the Cubs’ Class A affiliate in Daytona, FL. From there, he moved up to West Tennessee (Class AA) after the Daytona season ended, and finally spent the last weeks of the 2004 season with the Iowa City Cubs (Class AAA) one step away from the major leagues.

As soon as the season ended, he flew off to Arizona to play another 18 games for the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League.

Currently, he is enjoying some precious family time in Guilford, CT

Greenberg, whose grandfather was Hank Greenberg ¾ but not the Hank Greenberg ¾ was a three-sport athlete at Guilford High and earned 12 varsity letters in high school playing soccer, basketball and baseball. He was selected All-State in baseball by the New Haven (CT) Register all four years, plus earned All-American AAU recognition in the summer between eighth and ninth grade.

A prototypical leadoff batter, Greenberg did not make the Cubs’ 40-man (protected) roster. Therefore he is eligible for the Rule 5 draft coming up at the Major League meetings later this month. If he were to be selected, he would be guaranteed a year on a major league roster, but not with the Cubs. If not, he would be up for assignment with the Cubs, and he hopes, back to Iowa City or better yet, the parent club.

His latest statistics with Mesa were a .320 batting average in 18 games, with 26 hits, including three doubles and two triples. He also stole five bases in six tries.

Former University of Southern California basketball star David Bluthenthal will return to Maccabi Tel Aviv after failing an NBA tryout with the Sacramento Kings. Bluthenthal was one of the last two players cut before the season started.

Bluthenthal, noted for his outside shooting and scoring in bunches, played the last two seasons with MTA. The team won the Euroleague championships in both years.

In some respects, Dmitry Salita is a fresh wind in a gruesome sport.

The Russian-born Jewish boxer who won his 20^th fight with no losses on Nov. 18 in the Grand Ballroom of the Manhattan Center is a hypsters’ living dream.

"Anybody wants a whupping from me has to wait until after sundown," he was quoted as saying.

Think that’s just hype? In November 2002, a Las Vegas boxing crowd had to wait for the start of one fight until Salita finished reciting Havdalah.

And his trainer, the legendary Jimmy O’Pharrow of Brooklyn says of him, "He’s Russian, prays Jewish and fights black."

Think that’s another load of hype? Salita is orthodox, kosher, and 100 percent observant. He also goes to synagogue daily and will not fight on Shabbat. However, he trains songs of rap singers, and a biopic of his brief life is in production with the notorious Eminem playing Salita.

The Salita family came to The United States from Odessa, Ukr, for the same reasons most of our forbears came to the Golden Medina: To give their children an opportunity to do something with their lives. Dima, as his Russian-Jewish neighbors and fans call him, was 9-years old.

And now with 20 successful fights behind him, Salita hopes to be ranked in the Top 10 of his division before the end of 2005, and get a chance to fight for the Junior Welterweight Championship. If he succeeds, he will be the first Jewish boxing champion with a major title since the 1930s.